A physics and astronomy teacher looks around room 1714 in the brief intermission before the second period starts. He takes a glance at the stacks of boxes piled in the side of the room, placed haphazardly next to various scales and toy cars neatly prepared for the day’s lab activities. Just visible are a telescope and a few posters, colorful in contrast to the classroom’s relatively barren walls, waiting to be placed in the wake of his recent move-in to the room. But rather than finding locations where they’d fit together and fill out the room, his task is more simple – instead, he just has to return them to their original places, where
Joshua Bloom is no stranger to Palo Alto High School, teaching physics and astronomy since 2001 and becoming the instructional supervisor of the science department in 2013. But after more than 20 years of being a part of the Paly community, Bloom took a year-long absence from teaching – and for the 2021-22 academic year, became the principal of Lydian Academy in Menlo Park.
“A friend of mine reached out to me and said he needed someone to replace him as principal,” Bloom said. “I thought long and hard about it, and decided that this was an opportunity worth taking.”
According to its website, Lydian Academy provides an individualized, one on one learning program for every student that enrolls. The program enrolls fewer than 80 students every year, with a two-to-one student to teacher ratio – a very different experience compared to the size of the Paly program.
The Lydian culture was different from what Bloom had experienced for the past 20 years of teaching – but Bloom said it was the contrast between the two that was most attractive about the offer.
“The idea of working in an entirely different educational space with a strategy that I hadn’t seen before was really interesting to me,” Bloom said. “It was at a point in my career where I was ready to try something new.”
Despite his interest in the role, becoming a principal required adjustment. According to Bloom, administrative work was a significant shift away from the daily classroom routine he was used to at Paly.
“When you’re an administrator, you spend a lot of time in your office, staring at a screen and responding to emails,” Bloom said. “I love seeing and interacting with large numbers of students every day, and the day to day reward that comes with being a teacher, but I didn’t get to do that when I was principal, and I found myself missing the energy of the classroom.”
Although being a teacher with hands-on opportunities in the classroom was rewarding, Bloom said being an administrator was a change in perspective that offered its own unique benefits.
“The rewards come in time when you’re an administrator – it’s kind of a slower burn,” Bloom said. “You get to guide the vision, direction and culture of a school, and I got the opportunity to influence a lot of younger educators on teaching.”
According to Bloom, although he enjoyed being principal at Lydian, the school decided to shift its leadership system at the end of his year there to a system where the job of “principal” would be effectively removed. He was offered a replacement role in the program as a result – however, he wasn’t interested, leading to his return to teaching.
“I wanted to give it two years, but the school basically decided to restructure their leadership, part of that coming with the position of principal being dissolved and breaking that position out into other roles,” Bloom said. “The new position wasn’t something that I was interested in, and I ended up returning to teaching at Paly.”
With his time as a principal over, Bloom said he’s excited to get back into the classroom again, taking his time at Lydian and applying some of it to his lessons.
“I think I did good work as principal, but I think I do my best work in the classroom,” Bloom said. “I want to leave the world a better place and teaching is such an amazing way to do that. Administration is a great way to do that too. But for me, I think teaching is where the greatest reward is.”